Deftones released Koi No Yokan on November 12, 2012, through Reprise Records. Their seventh studio album was their second with producer Nick Raskulinecz and bassist Sergio Vega, following 2010’s Diamond Eyes. Opener “Swerve City” puts Chino Moreno’s melodic singing against a heavy guitar attack, setting up an album that could make room for both in the same passage.
The working day behind those songs was straightforward. Moreno told The Skinny in 2012 that the five musicians met around noon at a North Hollywood rehearsal space near his home and spent five or six hours developing ideas. Writing together let them settle arrangements while everyone was present. Previously, guitarist Stephen Carpenter might record a part, only for Moreno to arrive days later and alter it to accommodate a vocal. Making those decisions together removed a recurring source of frustration.
That change also helped preserve what had made an idea exciting in the first place. In a 2012 interview with SPIN, Moreno described how extended recording sessions could leave a riff almost unrecognizable after repeated alterations. He wanted to capture the original impulse while allowing the songs to develop beyond their opening moments. “The right melody can be just as impactful as the loudest scream,” he said.
Carpenter and Vega found another way to open up the writing: changing the sounds available to them. Both used Fractal Audio’s Axe-Fx II processor, which combined amplifier modeling and effects in a portable unit. Vega told Electronic Musician in 2013 that they could develop ideas in hotel rooms using the same equipment they took into the studio and onto the stage. Different tones suggested different parts, making the gear part of composition itself. Engineer Matt Hyde also captured amplifier sounds for the processor’s matching function, connecting the new setup to the physical amps they were recording.
Writing as a group didn’t mean recording every finished performance together. Raskulinecz described a staged process: guitar, bass and vocal guide tracks came first, drums followed, and the initial parts were then replaced. That gave the musicians a shared arrangement to work from while letting the production team concentrate on each instrument’s tuning, timing and relationship to the others.
Across the finished record, the changes in intensity had room to unfold. “Leathers” moves from a quiet opening into an abrupt full-band entrance. “Tempest” takes more than six minutes to develop its layers of guitar and melody, while “Rosemary” runs longer still. The album’s 11 tracks accommodate both the compact opening punch of “Swerve City” and those extended arrangements.
The partnership with Raskulinecz also led to a lasting connection with Hyde. Looking back in a 2020 interview with Uproxx, Moreno said Raskulinecz’s other commitments had limited his involvement during parts of the writing and the end of recording. The band continued working with Hyde and finished an album Moreno said they were proud of. He heard Koi No Yokan and Diamond Eyes as complementary records.
Hyde’s role continued beyond those sessions. Deftones worked with him again on Gore, released in 2016, after he had handled engineering and additional production on Koi No Yokan.
